Thank you for the timely interview with Harvey Silverglate (see "You're All Guilty," by Peter Kadzis, September 25). He mentions that the orgy of questionable indictments started in the '80s. Funny, I'm just reading In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Mathiessen ? it details rampant witness tampering and prosecutorial incompetence leading up to the conviction of Leonard Peltier for the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975. So, I'd have to say that the Nixon years led up to the idea of using the Justice Department as a political tool, if not earlier. I guess Silverglate's pointing out the spreading of such tactics to victimizing members of the white majority, where they've always been used on the minorities.

Jeffrey Hotchkiss
Yarmouth

PRISON CONDITIONS ARE EMERGENCY

I want to thank Lance Tapley for his excellent awareness-raising articles concerning the abusive treatment of some of Maine's prison population. In recent issues, he has kept before us the dangers of prolonged solitary confinement in the SMU ("Supermax"), the harsh treatment of Deane Brown exiled to a supermax in Maryland at the behest of the Baldacci administration., and the unaccountability and apparent ineffectiveness of the Maine State Prison's Board of Visitors. (See, for example, "Secret, Co-Opted, and Unaccountable," August 14, and "Prison 'Troublemaker' Confronts Racism, Medical Abuse," September 11.)

Now we learn that beyond the tightly controlled domain of the Department of Corrections, the Maine Human Rights Commission has come to the shocking conclusion that the Commission has no jurisdiction to protect prisoners from discrimination suffered behind "the wall." (See "Less Than Equal," October 2.) Admittedly they were encouraged by the Attorney General's Office, based on a ruling by Justice Atwood in Napier v. Department of Corrections (2002) finding that "prisons offer no services to the general public." (Really? One wonders what they are for, in that case.) This kind of Red Queen logic (Alice in Wonderland) defining eligibility by site, does all Mainers a disservice.

I was heartened that the truly informed members of the Commission, executive director Patricia Ryan and John Gause, its chief lawyer, came to a different conclusion and read more recent cases; not that it seems that the other Commission members put much stock in legal considerations, given their quoted comments. I am disappointed that chairman Paul Vestal, who has been on the Commission for far too long, but who used to know better, is now completely cloaked in the cynicism normally displayed by the generally uninformed members of the public, who like to think that no prisoner has any integrity and all are congenital liars. I have worked in prisons for the last 30 years and know that the "inside" population of prisons share the same gamut of moral (and immoral) values/attitudes as the "outside" society ? no better, no worse. And if prisoners dream up mischief like frivolous suits because they have too much time on their hands, it is surely because we, the society, prefer to pay for warehousing rather than education and job skills building, which are proven life- changers.

It would be wonderful if the Commission quickly sees the error of its ways. However, it would be even better if we made some preventative efforts ? not by refusing remedies to discrimination against prisoners, but by reforming the conditions complained of. A good place to start would be for the next session of the Legislature to agree to accept the bill submitted by Representative Jim Schatz to limit the use of solitary confinement and to give clear directives as to when and how it may be used. This is much more of an emergency than most of the bills that, I suspect, will be accepted for 2010.

Falling down Critics of the state Department of Corrections say the hostage-taking last June at the Maine State Prison dramatically illustrates that the concrete, high-tech lockup in Warren is showing cracks from stress on the prison guards.

Another Supermax hunger strike Protesting that nothing had been done by prison authorities to relieve the torture of prolonged solitary confinement, on August 17 inmates of the Maine State Prison’s 100-man Special Management Unit or “Supermax” reprised a hunger strike that had been abandoned last May.

Prison ‘troublemaker’ confronts racism, medical abuse Vacillating between grit and despair — between aggressive lawsuits and suicide attempts — Deane Brown, the prisoner who in 2005 blew the whistle on the torture of mentally ill inmates at the Maine State Prison’s solitary-confinement “Supermax” unit, is struggling against prison conditions in Maryland, where he was exiled by the Baldacci administration.

Time for law to end torture In a collaborative effort between human-rights activists and incarcerated Mainers, a bill to end the use and abuse of solitary confinement has been drafted and will be submitted to legislators soon.

Less than equal This story has a bias. It’s in favor of human rights for all people.

Limiting Supermax solitary Representative James Schatz, a Blue Hill Democrat, has proposed legislation to tightly limit when prisoners can be kept in the solitary confinement of the 100-man Supermax unit of the Maine State Prison in Warren.

Suspect speaks; victim’s family begins $1-million-plus lawsuit The widow of Sheldon Weinstein, the Maine State Prison inmate who died in April several days after allegedly being beaten by inmates, has taken the first step toward filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against prison guards, Department of Corrections “policy-making personnel,” and prison medical-care providers.

A mysterious new inmate death Despite a scandal earlier this year over a prisoner death, state corrections officials won’t allow the Phoenix to interview a Maine State Prison inmate who has claimed in letters that prison staff abused an ailing prisoner, Victor Valdez, before Valdez died in late November.

DONE WAITING FOR PATIENT SAFETY | March 07, 2013 As an employee in downtown Portland as well as a resident, I've been exposed to a climate of escalating hostility surrounding the entrance to the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England offices.